Union flags fluttered, noise levels rose, royal cheerleaders assumed their customary positions and the British public rose to acclaim a new cast of heroes as the London Paralympic Games got underway.

During the Olympics it took five jittery days for British athletes to record their first gold, sparking the rush of medals that followed.

But it took only until the first afternoon of competition for one of Britain's greatest Paralympians to pick up where Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton left off in the velodrome.

Amid signs that the euphoria which accompanied the event only half-jokingly dubbed the "warm up" by Paralympians had returned, Sarah Storey won the eighth gold of a 20-year career – and the first of these Games – with ease in the women's C5 3km time trial.

"I always thought that if I could get off to a great start it would set up the week and hopefully that's the case," she said afterwards.

"I suppose it did look easy but mentally you have to prepare and make it happen."

In the Aquatics Centre, the only venue where TeamGB underperformed during the Olympics, the noise was similarly deafening as a string of British swimmers won medals on the opening day of competition.

Jonathan Fox, who broke the world record in his S7 100m backstroke heat in the morning, then did what none of the Team GB squad managed at the Olympics and took gold in the final. Already, the Paralympic swimming squad has equalled the medal count of their Olympic counterparts.

Fox, who has cerebral palsy, said he had motivated himself before the final by listening to heavy metal bands such as Breaking Benjamin and at the finish celebrated by wagging his finger in the air.

He paid tribute to the "awesome atmosphere" created by the 17,500 spectators within the Aquatics Centre. Organisers hope that those athletes competing in packed venues and featuring in more than 500 hours of Channel 4 coverage will inspire both admiration of their sporting achievements and a wider shift in perceptions.

At her fourth Paralympic Games, the Welsh swimmer Nyree Kindred took silver in the S6 100m backstroke. Sixteen-year-old Hannah Russell, who a week ago was worrying about her GCSE results, marked herself out as a star as she won silver in the S12 400m freestyle in a British record time.

The day had not started so well, with ParalympicsGB ambassadors the duke and duchess of Cambridge seeing the home goalball team lose 11-1 to world champions Lithuania. But things improved from there on the opening day of competition in a Paralympic Games that organisers claim will be the "biggest and best" in history.

In all, ParalympicsGB racked up a total of seven medals towards their target of 103 – including a bronze in the judo for Ben Quilter in the 60kg category and a powerlifting bronze for Zoe Newson.

But there were also signs that the Chinese team could be even more dominant than four years ago in Beijing, where they topped the medal table with more than twice as many medals as Britain after pouring huge sums into Paralympic sport.

As at the Olympics, there was also loud acclaim for the best athletes from abroad. American Jessica Long, a double amputee, won her eighth career gold and set a new Paralympic record in the women's S8 100m butterfly. The South African Natalie du Toit, who has also appeared at the Olympics and is swimming in her final Paralympics, won her 11th gold.

For British fans wanting to maintain the patriotic reverie sparked by the Olympics, Storey's was the standout performance of the day.

She had qualified for the final of the women's C5 individual pursuit in a world record time – the 72nd of her career – with a huge advantage on paper over her rival, the Pole Anna Harkowska.

Her time was faster than that recorded by Joanna Rowsell to win the UCI world championship in the same venue in February.

That left her a 1/50 favourite for the final and she duly delivered in emphatic fashion, catching her opponent with half of the 3km pursuit race remaining.

Mark Colbourne, dubbed "Uncle Bryn" by his teammates who think he sounds like the Rob Brydon character, earlier took silver in the C1-2-3 1km time trial to win Britain's first medal of the Games.

Colbourne, a former Wales volleyball international, broke his back while paragliding in 2009, and has only been riding for 18 months.

Afterwards he said he had tried to block out the sound of the crowd.

"You try and blank out 6,000 people if you can. It was very loud. I probably only heard the crowd in lap three, once I'd relaxed into my stride."

The dominance of Britain's Parlaympic cyclists in Beijing, where they won 17 of the team's overall total of 42 gold medals, matched that of their non-disabled counterparts.

The two teams train alongside each other at the national cycling centre in Manchester, sharing the same philosophy and approach to coaching, sports science, psychology and technology.

If anything, the ascent of Britain's Paralympic cyclists has been even more dizzying than that of Hoy and company.

Until the Athens Paralympics in 2004, Britain's Paralympians had never won a cycling gold.

ParalympicsGB, who paraded around the Olympic Stadium to a rapturous reception during Wednesday's opening ceremony, has set a target of winning a record 103 medals from at least 12 sports in London and finishing second to China in the medal table.

It was Storey that got the ball rolling, beating her own world record in qualifying as she closed in on her eighth Paralympic gold medal.

Five of those golds were won in the pool, the first 20 years ago in Barcelona, before she switched to the bike after she was forced to give up swimming due to an ear infection.

Storey, born with a congenital hand deficiency, has raced alongside non-disabled riders for her whole career and only narrowly missed out on competing in both the Olympics and Paralympics when she failed to make the team pursuit squad for the former.

She will target three more gold medals in the C4/5 500m sprint on the track and the time trial and road race that will take place at motor racing circuit Brands Hatch in Kent.

Amid a surge of interest in the Paralympics, Channel 4 said it had attracted a peak audience of more than 11m for its live coverage of Wednesday night's well received opening ceremony – well above expectations.

The International Paralympic Committee said that its website had received more hits on Thursday than during the entire Beijing Games in 2008. More than 2.4m tickets have been sold, with only around 100,000 remaining.

One controversy that is bound to be a feature of these Games also came to the fore as 17-year-old US swimmer Victoria Arlen was told she will compete in the 400m S6 freestyle heats tomorrow with the threat of disqualification hanging over her.

The classification system that underpins Paralympic sport is designed to ensure a level playing field – generally, the lower the number, the more severe the impact of the athlete's impairment on their sport – but can be open to challenge.

Arlen, a major rival of British swimmer Ellie Simmonds, was found to be "non-eligible" earlier this week after the IPC received evidence compelling them to reassess the world record holder. But after an appeal was heard and new evidence submitted, Arlen – a double world record holder – was restated pending an observation during her heat on Saturday.